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'Maybe I do', she thinks to herself.

'I deserve a much worse fate', she thinks to herself.

Overly defensive. Usually a sign of insecurity.

There's more to it than that. Having a break wasn't her choice.

It's been much harder than she's letting on. That magazine was her life.

Presumably because her whole life has been flipped around after her magazine was shuttered.

There's a bit more to it than that, but she's reluctant to admit it.

Few of the middle class residents of the Housing Campaign want to be seen openly making offerings or tending the shrine. Such things scream 'working class'.

Maybe it was her husband's idea.

He does not see the it in you.

It has to come from inside. It's personal first.

Women trained to elicit joy, to be polite and obliging, to please. It genuinely does nothing for him.

He includes himself like one coming to terms with the things done during a blackout, or a bout of amnesia.

She's concerned, but she knows his limits.

'Why twist the knife?', his gaze seems to say.

As he puts it away, you see the look he gives his masterpiece, as though wondering why it is not good enough for you.

There he is. He's back.

It's hopeless. You brought this on yourself.

If this was anyone else you'd feel patronised. But that's not Ram's style -- he's genuinely trying to help.

Glad that the time he spent on the whistle wasn't wasted after all.

Neither the friend you left behind years ago, nor the quivering wreck you found in his houseboat.

A small promise, remade and unkept a thousand times over. 'Tomorrow', he'd tell himself, until the word meant nothing.

If you care about him, the best thing you can do is step out of his way and let him rejoin life. Regardless of what he wants.

He's not taking a no.

His lopsided smile is the same, though perhaps cut with a streak of bitterness that might be new.

A small silence as you rearrange your understandings of each other.

It was too much to hope that you were here without an agenda, but he had hoped.

He doesn't know Dr. Gonzalo E.S. Gonza.

Dr. Hugo did seem cagey, not the type to hand out drugs without going through a robust checklist.

When all is said and done, the weed plug is Ramses' last point of contact with the world of humans.

He needs to feel useful somehow. Especially as you're trying to help him out.

You can't abandon your old asset -- a friend -- in this kind of state. At least, not without finding out what happened to him.

Unbelievable. He finds the sound comforting.

A mirror of your guilt. Whatever is happening here, it is the result of how you abandoned him years ago.

Or at least -- he was.

Morbidly transfixed, you as much a slave to what you are watching as the unblinking spectator.

Either a medical emergency, or a spiritual one.

You're still talking to a cat. Stop. People can hear you.

You are preparing to strike the cruelest blow.

Not a fleck of irony.

You can see your reflection, flipped, in the unblemished metal.

You're in -- as a poet. Don't let them believe you're anything else.

They have. Many people have.

A melodic voice that makes you think of flowers blooming in timelapse.

Your human situation.

They didn't really talk, but she gravitated toward his presence like an animal to an abandoned building.

You can feel the tension going out of her shoulders, her diaphragm slackening as she straightens in her chair.

There is a correct answer, but neither of you know what it is.

She's done this many times before. She'll say as little as possible. Treat it like a formality to get through the moment.

1,005 skill checks - ZERO PARADES field manual - Page 18 of 21